KnowledgeOwl Software

KnowledgeOwl is a cloud-based knowledge management solution that is suitable for businesses of all sizes. It is industry agnostic and is most useful to human resources (HR) and customer service departments. Core features include knowledge base creation and management, navigation tools, search functionality, user management and advanced reporting capabilities. It helps users keep information organized into categories and sub-categories. Users can use tags to relate articles by terms or phrases to improve findability.

KnowledgeOwl allows customers to manage and share their information in the form of online manuals, handbooks, portals, user guides and software documents. Its analytics and reporting feature allows users to address gaps in the knowledge base by studying the needs of users.

KnowledgeOwl is available in monthly and annual subscription options at a price that varies based on the number of users and knowledge bases. It provides customer support via email, chat, phone, social media and a knowledge base.

For the most part, this software is easy and intuitive for a non-technical person to use, although it may require a little Googling if you haven't dusted off your HTML skills in recent years. Most of the design is point-and-click; images are uploaded and there is a nice visual editor, similar to Wordpress.
One of my favorite features is the option for the software to "fetch" the colors from whatever web address you enter. This enables the Knowledge Base to basically design itself, all you really need to do is decide where the colors are used and select a layout.
Our initial help center was created using our ticketing software, which seemed like natural thing to do. Except the end result was an outdated flashback, and like most fads from the past, unpleasing to the eye. Anything I did was just putting lipstick on a pig, so that being said, it wasn't going to take much to impress me.
Unfortunately, I ran into formatting issues so I was tasked to call technical support. It seems like a non-issue and for the normal person, it probably is...but I loathe technical support. I would rather go to the dentist than call technical support.
After a few days of trying to figure it out, I was told to stop "procrastinating" and make the call. That was harsh because even though *maybe* I was procrastinating a tiny bit, I was mostly ambitiously learning to make myself a more valuable asset in the future. However, that went awry when I did something that made our help center absolutely horrific. I frantically slammed CTRL-Z over and over again but to my dismay, our help center continued to look like a freak show.
Defeated, I hung my head and picked up the phone.
But, luckily for me, this technical support was not what I have experienced in the past - it was actually a pleasant experience. The errors of my ways were quickly erased into non-existence and our help center bloomed into what it was supposed to look like this entire time. Not only were my failures undone, but issues that I wasn't even aware of (yet) were fixed, too.
I am a writer and its reassuring to know that I have someone technical who can help me so that I can spend my time writing instead of banging CNTRL-Z. It's more efficient than the whole "ambitiously learning" thing.

November 2018

Kristen from Produce Pro, Inc.

Company Size: 51-200 employees

Review Source: Capterra

Ease-of-use

5 of 5

Value for money

5 of 5

Customer support

5 of 5

Functionality

5 of 5

November 2018

Simple yet robust and OUTSTANDING Customer Service

When looking to replace our current customer support portal, we looked at several options. Knowing that we wanted a self service platform to maintain documentation, videos, demos, etc., Knowledge Owl (KO) came out on top. Their out of the box solution had much more functionality for the money and was solid.
Once we started uploading content, we had several questions as new users typically do, but the team at KO was ALWAYS ready, willing, and able to assist. Not being the most technical person, I never once felt like I was bothering them.
We also had the KO team assist with integrating our ticketing system and mirroring the CSS of our public site. All was fairly seamless and the team was extremely responsive throughout.
Being that we built our KO site as private where our customers need to log in to access company-specific information, we also utilize KO's password management.
Overall, I could not be more pleased with this solution and the KO team. They are really fantastic, extremely responsive. And, they are constantly improving the platform! Great product and Great People! Thank you KO. We look forward to working with you for a VERY long time to come...

Pros

- Robust- Easy to use- Customer Service (top notch!)

Cons

None that I can think of right now. This company is really doing a great job and from our standpoint is a leader in the knowledge base space.

Response from KnowledgeOwl of KnowledgeOwl

Replied November 2018

Thank you so much, Kristen! We super appreciate the awesome review! -Marybeth

September 2017

Kelly from iMentor

Review Source: Capterra

Ease-of-use

5 of 5

Value for money

5 of 5

Customer support

5 of 5

Functionality

5 of 5

September 2017

Great service, great functionality

Pros

Not only does the software provide flexibility, customization, functionality, and efficiency, the people behind the software are just as great. They are incredibly responsive to any organizational or technical need, but equally as open to develop new and unique features specific to your use.

Cons

If I HAD to choose, I would say the lack of detailed reporting in the backend. There's only topical understanding of user behavior of your knowledge base(s). However, Knowledge Owl is more than happy to help you install Google Analytics on your knowledge base for you.

Response from KnowledgeOwl of KnowledgeOwl

Replied September 2017

Thanks for the awesome review, Kelly! We do hope to add more detailed reporting in the future :) Let us know if you can think of anything else!

August 2018

Jeffery from WA Department of Licensing

Company Size: 501-1,000 employees

Review Source: Capterra

Ease-of-use

5 of 5

Value for money

5 of 5

Customer support

5 of 5

Functionality

5 of 5

August 2018

Knowledge Owl is very versatile

It has been great using this program. The support we receive is great. I wish they could come teach our in house IT team on customer service and the need for speed on some fixes. It is nice talking to someone who knows what they are doing and bends over backwards to make you happy. GREAT customer service and a great product.

Pros

It is easy to update our web pages. And our employees are able to quickly navigate it quickly, so that they can help their customers quickly. The ability to change things on the fly and not have to reach out to support for everything that is done is a big help.

Cons

The only negative thing I can come up with is that you need to know HTLM to fix some thing's, but with a quick phone call, the problem is fixed faster than we ever could do.

Response from KnowledgeOwl of KnowledgeOwl

Replied August 2018

Thanks, Jeff! We really appreciate the awesome review! -Marybeth

January 2017

Meghan from Success Academy Charter Schools

Company Size: 1,001-5,000 employees

Review Source: Capterra

Ease-of-use

5 of 5

Value for money

5 of 5

Customer support

5 of 5

Functionality

5 of 5

January 2017

Knowledge Owl has been the best vendor experience and helped us launch our game changer in education

In February 2016, we partnered with Knowledge Owl to build an internal platform that has been a game changer for our 41 (and growing) schools. We launched in July 2016, and there is no way we would have been successful without their partnership. They have been with us every step of the way, and they have been pivotal to our success.
In June of 2017, we will launch this to the world, and are so proud to do this with a company that cares so deeply about a high-quality, easy-to-use product with the BEST customer service. They are incredible!

Pros

-easy to use no coding required!-intuitive-clean design

Cons

Sometimes small glitches throw us off... since we don't really know how to code, we sometimes need some help. BUT, the team at Knowledge Owl is so happy to help, and they have gone above and beyond!

Response from KnowledgeOwl of KnowledgeOwl

Replied January 2017

Oh wow, thanks Meghan! I really appreciate the time you took to share your experience and I'm so delighted to hear all this :) We are honored to help Success Academy launch this amazing resource to the world. You are the best! -Marybeth

March 2016

David from BlueZinc IT Ltd

Review Source: Capterra

Ease-of-use

5 of 5

Customer support

5 of 5

March 2016

Knowledge is Power

Pros -
Incredibly intuitive
Highly customisable
Strong customer service ethos
Detailed reporting
Huge creative space
Up time - is excellent
NO CONS!
We've been with Knowledge Owl since 2014, and have thoroughly loved every day spent with them. We use their product to deliver incredibly important user guides, top tips FAQ's and other general information about our products and services, directly to our customers.
All of this is done through three separate knowledge bases, for three separate products.
The fact that we allow our products to be supported by Knowledge Owl across three separate KB's should indicate to you that we're serious when we say that their product is excellent.
In addition to giving us the creative space and freedom to impart knowledge onto our clients, their customer service has been excellent since day one. I am the person that contacts Knowledge Owl to deal with any situations that may arise around the knowledge bases, but in all honesty - I could probably count on one hand the amount of times I've had to request assistance. The times I have needed to, have been fast and very professional experiences, which is pretty incredible considering we are based across a sea and time zone from them.
As a manager the reporting tools and functions behind the scenes in Knowledge Owls KB's are invaluable. The statistics I am able to gather gives us as a company the ability to see what's - working, trending, missing and important to our clients.
As a long time user, I would have no problem at all recommending their product to another business or nominating them for an award in excellence.

Response from KnowledgeOwl of KnowledgeOwl

Replied March 2016

Thanks, David! You've been with us since the beginning, and we're so happy to have you as a customer. We greatly appreciate the amazing recommendation; you are the best! -Marybeth

April 2016

April from Teliax Inc

Review Source: Capterra

Ease-of-use

5 of 5

Customer support

5 of 5

April 2016

Super simple knowledgebase software

We'd signed up for KnowledgeOwl (then HelpGizmo) to use as a white-label manual for a product we resell. It's fit very well into that role, since we can customize the help center to only show information related to the product and disassociate it completely from our branding, which has helped a lot for marketing.
The software itself is very easy to use, way easier than something like MediaWiki. The rich text editing and easy image uploads (did I mention they host your media? No hotlinks!) makes writing articles with video/pictures super easy. It's also really easy to update articles, I went and overcomplicated myself when all I have to do is drag and drop the resource I want.
Support has always been wonderful, Marybeth, Pete, and the team are great at communicating changes (like the DNS shift from helpgizmo to knowledgeowl), answering questions, implementing fixes, and basically just being all-around great.
Customization is quick and easy, there are several features we haven't needed to explore but really do make KnowledgeOwl a great drop-in solution for other CRM or ticketing tools. Plus, users can download PDFs of your articles which makes distributing printable documentation even easier.
KnowledgeOwl is a great piece of software that does exactly what it needs to do, and nothing more. It's thoughtless to the point of never being in your way, allowing you to focus on writing and managing articles instead of spending time messing with options and configurations. Plus, it allows users to configure multiple KBs on the same account, so I can manage customer-facing documentation on one KB and have internal, staff-only documentation on another. Yatta!
KnowledgeOwl has become my go-to recommendation for a fast, easy, smart, professional knowledge base system. Give it a shot, I'm sure you'll feel the same way too!

As someone coming from the high-end CMS authoring tools of Madcap Flare, RoboHelp, and HelpStudio, KnowledgeOwl has a lot more of the features that I expect to see from a CMS system with the additional bonus of having a team willing to go the extra mile to implement tweaks for their customers.
It's a perk, especially compared to the stand-alone systems, where "can I do this?" usually returns a response of "you get what you get and LIKE it. Oh, we also just rolled out a $1500 update. Go buy that, it has that little tweak you want. Kind of. But not really. Oh, and you should spend eight hours tracking down a solution to the problem you're having in our forums, because what you want to do isn't part of this release. That's in the next release. We promise."
Not that I'm bitter.
That doesn't seem like much when you're working on a sedate development environment. Having the time to sit down and really chew on some Javascript is part of it, but when your only free time to breathe or do a little research on the site interface issues is during your morning bus commute, it's a huge impact to your daily work routine.
When you're trying to slam out content that changes on a daily basis, not having the time to implement a backend code tweak for your site while keeping up with your dev team's amazing ability to crush deploy deadlines like empty Red Bull cans makes it hard to get those tweaks to your backend integrated in a timely manner. But KnowledgeOwl has been responsive, helpful, and reasonable - to the point where I don't mind waiting a day or so to get an answer back or telling my team "I asked KO about it, they're figuring out a fix for that."
I am not a huge fan of CMS hosting apps and sites from a purist's standpoint, but KnowledgeOwl makes me think I may become a convert.

The overwriting of documents in the master library. No conflict warning when two editors are editing simultaneously. The edit and readers screen donnit mirror each other.

Response from KnowledgeOwl of KnowledgeOwl

Replied January 2017

Thanks for the feedback, Lynn! We hear you on the library and the editor collision, and hopefully we will get both problems sorted out in the next few weeks. I'll follow up with you privately about the edit and reader screens; we should be able to get them to match! -Marybeth

October 2016

Kelly from iMentor

Company Size: 51-200 employees

Review Source: Capterra

Ease-of-use

5 of 5

Customer support

5 of 5

Functionality

5 of 5

October 2016

Great customer service

Knowledge Owl's Marybeth and Pete co-design and troubleshoot any foreseen issues. They are immensely valued and responsive. Their backend is great and intuitive - which makes training staff simple and fast. I would recommend them to anyone.

Pros

The backend editor is simple and intuitive. The customer service is incredible.

Cons

N/A. Everything is amazing.

September 2018

Bethany from SelectQuote

Company Size: 1,001-5,000 employees

Review Source: Capterra

Ease-of-use

5 of 5

Value for money

5 of 5

Customer support

5 of 5

Functionality

5 of 5

September 2018

Clean UI; exemplary support!

Pros

We tested a few different pieces of software for our company intranet (after being forced to move away from the outdated Google Classic Sites) and chose Knowledge Owl because the UI was simple, clean, and easy to navigate. It gave us enough latitude to shape the way we wanted to present information to our employees while also providing enough structure to maintain a professional, organized site.

Cons

As the "subject matter expert," I needed to be the one to create our site, but I have zero experience with HTML coding. That being said, I can't say enough how incredible the support team has been. They are extremely responsive and excellent teachers to the extent that even someone like me with no coding experience has been able to create exactly what I want with relative ease. Good customer support is a dying art, so Knowledge Owl has really exceeded expectations in this area!

Knowledge Owl is, simply put, the best web-based help center platform I could find

I found KnowledgeOwl after joining a tech startup as the lead technical writer. At the time, the company didn't have any formal user documentation -- but we did have a support team fielding many repetitive questions, and users who could benefit from formal instruction. Given that we have a single product and it's fairly simple, products like MadCap Flare (which I had used at the previous company I worked for) offered much more than we needed -- and at a much different price point.
I evaluated several other options and ended up selecting KnowledgeOwl given its straightforward pricing plan, easy-to-use interface and immediate publishing abilities. If you need something simple to use and build that offers fairly attractive basic theme choices, then KnowledgeOwl will suit you just fine. It may not offer several hundred output options, but as the world continues to move away from print manuals towards greener, online manuals, in my opinion that factor wasn't important.
The best part about KnowledgeOwl, though, is the customer service/support. I can't imagine any company matching its service/support level. The first few weeks required a lot of customization given the look and feel that my company was going for, and the team over at KnowledgeOwl was with me every step of the way as far as customizing code and so on, in some cases even doing the customization for me as I was in over my head with that level of CSS code! Highly, highly recommended.

November 2018

Anonymous

Verified Reviewer

Company Size: 51-200 employees

Review Source: Capterra

Ease-of-use

5 of 5

Value for money

5 of 5

Customer support

5 of 5

Functionality

5 of 5

November 2018

The best tech writing tool

Pros

For ease of use, this is the best knowledge base software I have used. I love how I can publish information to our clients instantly. But best of all, I have never had better customer service from anyone. The Knowledge Owl team are always there to help.

Cons

Some HTML and CSS skills are needed to get the exact look you are after (but their support team are prompt and incredibly helpful).

November 2018

David from Nordson Corporation

Company Size: 5,001-10,000 employees

Review Source: Capterra

Ease-of-use

4 of 5

Value for money

5 of 5

Customer support

5 of 5

Functionality

5 of 5

November 2018

The way SAS should be

We needed a replacement for Crowdbase which is turning off their platform at the end of the year. After a through search for a replacement, Knowledge Owl came out as the clear winner on every one of our requirements. First and foremost, we needed the ability to mimick the look (to some degree) and interaction behavior that our users had become used to in Crowdbase. KO provided this. The KO feature set is actually overkill for our needs, but very solid and not so granular that a none coder can't get things done without support. However, when you need support, KO REALLY shines. They are a relatively small organization, but growing, so they can really provide personal service. If KO can find that magical balance of growth (which will come just based on how great a platform it is), and continue the quality of service, they will own the knowledge base space.

Pros

Simple: Incredible feature set, affordable, and best of all...world class technical support

Cons

Nothing to report. We are in the process of establishing our site and as of yet nothing in the onboarding process has been a problem.

November 2014

Josh from iMentor

Review Source: Capterra

Ease-of-use

5 of 5

Customer support

5 of 5

November 2014

Stop looking and use HelpGizmo!

We were using Zendesk for our knowledge base because they were also our ticketing system, but I got frustrated with slow development timelines for some features core to our organization. We reached a tipping point and needed an alternative solution. After looking into over a dozen options, I discovered HelpGizmo.
Not only did they already have the core features we needed, they were genuinely interested in building the best product possible and asked about the other pain points that existed with our previous service. They were willing to iterate on their product quickly and excellently to make it something even better than the great product I had discovered.
It was such a different experience to see how quickly they responded and rolled out really great features that create a lot of value. Best yet, we still use Zendesk for ticketing but HelpGizmo is now our knowledge base and since Helpgizmo integrates with Zendesk we get the best of what each company offers. It made switching such an easy decision for our organization.
And you will not find a better customer service team. They are friendly, responsive, and always looking to make their product better. That is probably the most impressive "feature" you'll be getting when you go with HelpGizmo.
Going with HelpGizmo was a great decision and working with their team has been a true pleasure. Highly recommend!

November 2014

Josh from iMentor

Company Size: 51-200 employees

Review Source: GetApp

November 2014

HelpGizmo is a great product with a great team at a great price.

We were using Zendesk for our knowledge base because they were also our ticketing system, but I got frustrated with slow development timelines for some features core to our organization. We reached a tipping point and needed an alternative solution. After looking into over a dozen options, I discovered HelpGizmo. Not only did they already have the core features we needed, they were genuinely interested in building the best product possible and asked about the other pain points that existed with our previous service. They were willing to iterate on their product quickly and excellently to make it something even better than the great product I had discovered. It was such a different experience to see how quickly they responded and rolled out really great features that create a lot of value. Best yet, we still use Zendesk for ticketing but HelpGizmo is now our knowledgebase and Helpgizmo integrates with Zendesk so we get the best of what each company offers. Going with HelpGizmo was a great decision and working with their team has been a true pleasure. Highly recommend!

The first thing to know about the KnowledgeOwl product is that the team behind it is really dedicated and extremely responsive. Whenever I've had an issue, they have been right on top of it and that's worth a lot.
Combine this with a really simple and rock-solid product, and you have a real winner. We deployed a new product knowledgebase in less than 30 days from start to production with KnowledgeOwl. When we needed tweaks to the mobile view, they were able to immediately help. When we suggested new features, they were quick to give us a delivery date and put them in queue.
The product is very easy to set up, even simpler to maintain, and (most importantly) it is stupidly simple to use. Simplicity is key as far too many other products we evaluated had a lot of legacy UI or other complexity which served as a barrier to entry for the end-user.
If there was any difficulty it's with uploading images to be used. The files are uploaded to a library and then transferred to the website through an automatic process. Usually this is instantaneous, but if you upload a file with the same name or do something else weird then it can take several minutes to straighten out. That's a fairly minor concern in a product that can do so much with such a responsive staff.
Our technical team uses the knowledge base every day. What more can you ask of a product?

August 2016

Emily from Unitum

Company Size: 51-200 employees

Review Source: Capterra

Ease-of-use

5 of 5

Value for money

5 of 5

Customer support

5 of 5

Functionality

5 of 5

August 2016

Amazing customer service

I use this software to create lessons for internal and external viewing. It is really easy to use and creates really user friendly and professional guides.

Pros

-Ease of use-The owl favicon!-The fun element

Cons

That images don't enlarge when you click on them - I have spoken to Marybeth about this and it is something that will likely be added soon - so not really a con!

Simple web base interface with a lot of options.Easy to manage your articles life cycle and your users access as well.When ever we have a how to question or any question for that matter, there's always someone ready to help us.

Cons

Not much, maybe more language interface (French for example).1 more admin licence with the basic subscription would be nice.

Response from KnowledgeOwl of KnowledgeOwl

Replied May 2018

Thanks for the review, Gabriel!
We are planning to add better translations capabilities in the near future for multilingual knowledge bases, so hopefully that will make your life easier. I also sent you an email about the extra admin license :)
-Marybeth

April 2015

Bobbi from Park District of Oak Park

Review Source: Capterra

Ease-of-use

5 of 5

Customer support

5 of 5

April 2015

great product, phenomenal service!

I spent at least 6 months looking for software to manage our many internal manuals, policies, and procedures, but struggled to find a tool that would solve our problems (without creating a new set of workarounds to manage) at a price that we could afford. HelpGizmo met both qualifications with flying colors when we signed up with them a little less than a year ago and has at least tripled the number of available features since then.
The best part about the software is how intuitive it is to use. It required zero training on the part of the users, and only a minimal overview with co-workers who were going to be managing the knowledge bases. I've been so impressed with the software and all of the possible uses that we've upgraded from one knowledge base to three in order to incorporate it into other projects.
All of this is possible because of their staff, who offer some of the friendliest and most responsive customer support I've ever witnessed. Both MaryBeth and Pete were incredibly helpful during the roll-out of the program to our staff. And when I had a last minute request before creating a report for our Board, they were there to make a quick customization to save the day.

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